


Nothing can ruin Pho time

by Marmarhargreeves



Category: The Umbrella Academy (Comics), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: ASL, Diego Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Protective Vanya Hargreeves, Racism, Sibling Bonding, Stuttering Diego, pho happy times, stutter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2019-11-12 14:36:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18012716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marmarhargreeves/pseuds/Marmarhargreeves
Summary: Over the years Diego learned how to cover up his feelings and learned how to defend himself. However he wasn’t prepared to be bombarded by imbecile racist bigots on their new dinner tradition.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! I had posted this fic on my tumblr but I thought I’d post it here too. This was written at 4:30 am in my iPhone notes bc I love my emotionally stunted kids. This is loosely based on something I witnessed. I never post fics that I write so I’m a bit nervous - but I hope you enjoy! I apologize now for the errors aaaa

After avoiding the end of the world the Hargreeves decided that there was no better time than now to attempt to fix their estranged relationship. After 17 years of no communication then being forced into such a high intensity situation, to say they deserved some time together was an understatement. 

It had been a few months since the alleged end of the world and they all made it a habit to go out to dinner at least once a week together. Especially now that they’re all living under one roof it made things easier. They needed some time to recover to which Pogo and Grace happily obliged in their request to stay for a bit. They were all learning how to get along better - all improving in their communication skills after 30 years of being emotionally stunted. However their biggest arguments were always over where to eat. Klaus always wanted tacos, Allison usually wanted Thai food, Five just wanted a solid cup of coffee he didn’t really care where, Vanya always just said “I don’t care wherever you want”, and the rest of them agreed with whatever happened. 

Tonight they settled on a Vietnamese restaurant so Diego could “get his pho on” after a few weeks of complaining. 

“KLAUS GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE.” Diego exclaimed, waiting approximately seven seconds before screaming again.  
“IF YOU DON’T GET DOWN HERE WE’RE GONNA LEAVE WITHOUT YOU!” Diego grabbed his coat, tossing the keys to Five. Which was quickly followed by the click clack of Klaus’ black booties. 

“Yes brother dearest I heard you the first time!” Klaus made it to the bottom of the stairs and did a twirl, showing off his (Allison’s) black skirt and gave an expectant look to his brother. 

“Nice outfit.” Diego said with a nod, “Now get in the car, princess. I need pho in me. Stat.”

“Yessir~” 

All seven of the siblings piled into their new van which could actually fit all of them. Allison said it was a present for everyone but really it was for Five. Driving always seemed to calm him down and helped clear his head when he got too caught up in himself. 

The ten minute drive went by pretty quickly as the hot topic conversation was about whether or not sriracha belonged in pho. Luther was the only one opposed to the idea to which Ben added was due to his “unfortunate Caucasian genes”. 

They made their way out of the van and walked through the parking structure. As they turned a corner and got closer to their destination they heard a chorus of shouts and a sea of red hats right outside of the restaurant. 

“Is that what I think it is?” Luther asked out loud, his voice at least an octave higher than normal in disbelief at the scene in front of him. 

“BUILD THAT WALL. BUILD THAT WALL. KEEP THEM OUT” was being chanted, the sea of people held out signs that had things written along the lines of “secure USA boarders” and “keep illegals out”. 

“LOOK, THERE’S AN ILLEGAL OVER THERE!” A short, plump, middle aged white man yelled into his megaphone and pointed right at Diego. The entire crowd shifted their attention to the seven siblings, Diego in the front. 

“SHOW US YOUR DOCUMENTS FILTHY FUCK!” Another man shouted with nothing but pure venom in his voice. 

Diego clenched his jaw, his entire body tensing. Vanya, surprising to everyone, was the first one to defend their brother. 

“Don’t you guys have better things to do then spew hate? You’re not proving anything other than your ignorance.” Vanya was absolutely fuming but she managed to keep her voice calm and level, leaving the group behind and walking right up to the man. She placed herself less than two inches away from his face, looking up with a hand on her hip. 

“That little beaner over there is stealing our jobs, little miss,” he poked Vanya’s shoulder, “I’d advise you get the fuck out of my face before I call ICE on his ass.” 

“My brother has every right to here here just as you or I do. Legal or not, he’s a human being. Imagine not having the basic human decency to realize everyone is a person. You should be ashamed.” Vanya could feel her heart pounding with each word that was said. 

“We need to build the wall to keep all illegals out. No more brown fuckers stealing our jobs. This is MY AMERICA!” The man hissed, spit hitting her cheek. 

A car horn went off and trees started rustling, her anger becoming more evident. Allison quickly ran to the scene, grabbing Vanya’s hand and tearing her away from the situation before she had a chance to respond. 

“C’mon, these assholes don’t deserve our energy.” She signed, knowing Vanya always calmed down when she signed. It helped her feel more connected to her sister and it made her situation easier to accept. 

Vanya was shaking at this point as she walked back, still hand in hand with her sister. 

“We should leave.” Klaus said shakily, his hand on Diego’s shoulder. 

“V-Vanya. I-I can’t” Diego started but stopped himself, his words not cooperating with him right now. He immediately wrapped his arms around his sister, holding her tight. “Tha-thank you.” His voice was muffled in her shoulder and it was evident he was holding back tears. 

“You don’t need to thank me, silly.” Vanya replied, slowly breaking out of the hug. She looked up at her brother and wiped away a tear that was threatening to fall

“Let’s go get your pho someplace else, yeah?”  
Vanya offered her brother a soft smile to which he returned with a nod. 

The siblings made their way back to the van, all making sure to be extra kind to Diego. They knew when their brother was and wasn’t okay. 

They went to a “better” restaurant according to Klaus’ intensive yelp research. Once in the restaurant Klaus was the first to speak up. 

“I’m,” he paused, not even sure where to begin, “I can’t believe people like that still exist.”

“I can, unfortunately.” Allison signed, giving her brother an understanding look. She has faced her fair share of racism not just in the public eye, but also in her personal life as well. Being a black woman isn’t the easiest experience either. 

“I can’t believe we saved the world so rodents like that can spew their nonsense.” Five added, taking a sip of his coffee. “But you know they’re wrong right..? I mean, of course you do. But I understand how sometimes we all need to be affirmed.”

They all turned expectantly at their brother who hadn’t said more than a few words since the incident. Often times when Diego got emotional his words would fail him, they knew that. They learned over the years to be patient when that happened. It made Diego feel weak. Vulnerable. Not like a knife wielding badass he is but so much smaller than that. He felt like it reduced him to nothing more than broken syllables and incoherent sentences. 

“I-I kn-kn-know,” Diego started, signing as he spoke in case some things got lost in translation. “I’ve seen th-those types o-on the news b-b-but,” he sighed, closing his eyes and focusing on the next part of the sentence “ex-exp-experiencing it is d-different.” 

Vanya nodded and put her hand on top of his, giving it a light squeeze. She couldn’t imagine what experiencing something like that would be like. Seeing a group of people who think you shouldn’t exist. A group of people who vocalize that you are unimportant, less than. Well maybe she did know a thing to two about that, but not to that overwhelming degree. 

“It’s a good thing Vanya went up first because I was about 2 seconds way from beating their ass.” Luther was still visibly shaken by the ordeal, his trip on is water tightening, “Not that you couldn’t have done it yourself.” He added knowing full well his brother was more than capable of handling himself. 

As if in cue their food came. The waiter brought over 6 bowls of piping hot pho, placing it in front of the siblings. 

It didn’t take long before Diego’s mouth was full of noodles and the only thing heard were the sounds of slurps from each of their mouths. They ate in relative silence until they finished. 

“I-I want to uh,” Diego began as he wiped his mouth with a napkin, all heads turning to him, “thank you guys. Really.”

They all smiled at their brother, receiving a chorus of “of course” and “shut up dummy” phrases. Allison leaned across the table and kissed his cheek leaving a pink kiss mark on his face. He laughed and shook his head, bringing his hand up to the cheek.

After all that they’ve been through there was no way they were going to let a group of ungrateful, hateful, ignorant people ruin his pho time. And his siblings made sure of that.


	2. You Would’ve Done The Same Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five takes care of his family. He makes sure of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to thank you guys for your support !! I really hope you enjoy :)) a huge thank you to ughdotcom for their own rendition of this. I very much appreciated it <3

The first thing Diego thought of when he woke up were the events that unfolded right in front of him from the night before. What was supposed to be a peaceful night out turned into anything but. 

“BUILD THE WALL. BUILD THE WALL. BUILD THE WALL.” Echoed in his head. Even after sleeping on it for a night Diego couldn’t get the sound of their chants off his mind. He couldn’t get the pure venom and hatred that came out of their mouths to escape is consciousness. 

He turned to the clock to see that it was 9:16 AM. He could smell the waffles and pancakes wafting through his door from the kitchen. Everyone will be waking up soon and Five is usually persistent on watching the news each morning. 

Diego sat up and stretched, his body doing the minor spasm stretch before he relaxed and sighed. He wasn’t sure what the plan for the day was but he knew it would most likely be eventful. 

He slipped on the first shirt he grabbed from his dresser and made his way downstairs. He saw Grace at the kitchen with a whistling Allison by her side. 

Allison heard his footsteps and turned around, a small smile appearing on her face.  
“Morning! Sleep okay?” Allison signed, her thumb touching the middle of her chest with her fingers open. 

“Not bad, not bad.” Diego signed back, finding himself yawning. That earned a soft laugh from his sister and she poured him a cup of coffee and set it on the table for him. 

“Thank you.” She winked at him and went right back to breakfast prep. 

Within the next 10 minutes, one by one, the rest of Hargreeves made their way to the kitchen. Each of them gave Diego some sort of acknowledgement. Luther pat his shoulder, Klaus gave him a big ‘ol bear hug because “what’s wrong with showing his brother some morning love”? Vanya also gave him a hug albeit not as bone crushing.

Diego hadn’t said a word yet which wasn’t too abnormal for him. Since the apocalypse there were times where his stutter resurfaced and he didn’t want to talk. He wasn’t ashamed per se. His siblings didn’t mind when he tripped over his words. They all allowed him the time he needed to get his thoughts out when this happened. But sign language was sometimes easier when he didn’t want to worry about it. 

“-group of MAGA supporters found dead in a group suicide mission outside of the city. They were found all having shot each other in the head, their bodies all in a line.”

That peaked the interest of Diego and he whipped his head to the TV, the rest of the family following suit. Five was the last one to finally come down and all eyes were on him. 

“Good mor-“ Five stooped, tilting his head. 

“What did you do?” Diego signed and pointed at the TV, his eyes narrowing on his little(er) brother. 

“Oh that?” He turned the corner and walked towards the counter, “just what needed to be done.” Five said simply as he poured himself a cup of coffee. He made his way to the table to join the rest of his siblings, cup of coffee in one hand and a huge plate of waffles with a mountain of peanut butter on top. He cushioned himself in between Vanya and Klaus, Diego directly in front of him. 

“I know you wouldn’t have done anything yourself. You would’ve done the same thing if it were one of us.” Five added, starting to find the silence from the other six siblings slightly concerning. 

“You’re not wrong.” Diego nodded. He grabbed his brothers hand and gave it a light squeeze. 

“Th-thank you.” He said softly, trusting his voice even though it came out scratchy from not speaking for a while. 

“Of course.” He nodded and squeezed back before breaking the grip and starting to chow down on his peanut butter waffles. 

“I just wish you let me help.” Luther chimed in which earned a multiple “ditto” and “same” comments the remaining siblings. Even Ben, which Klaus happily passed along, with a very detailed description of what he wanted to do to those people. 

Diego didn’t hear those ugly chants again.


	3. Thanks Sis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had deleted this chapter a while back bc I was unhappy with how it turned out but...I went ahead and revised some things!!

The family eventually disbanded after their eventful breakfast, all the siblings going off to do their respective things for the day. The house was softly filled with the sound of Vanya practicing Bach concertos. Ben and Klaus were off doing lord knows what, Five was in his room reading, and Luther was off on a run. Allison had stayed behind in the kitchen with Diego though. She wanted to make sure he really was okay with the events that happened over the last 24 hours.

She understood what he was probably feeling better than any of the other siblings could. They sat in a comfortable silence, Diego aimlessly scrolling through his phone and Allison reading a magazine. Eventually she cleared her throat, getting her brothers attention.

“What’s up?” He signed, his middle fingers touching his shoulders and flicking upwards.

“I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. I remember my first experience with people like that and it took me a while to process the whole thing.” She replied, mouthing the words as she signed.

Diego’s features softened, “Yeah, I remember that.”

They were 14 and had just left a press conference. It was one of their many events the children went through after their new found fame. Reginald had agreed to let them do whatever they wanted after the conference if they handled themselves correctly. Luckily for them they all behaved to his standards.

“Let’s go to the movies!” Ben suggested as the waited for their personal driver to pick them up outside their house.

“I could go for a movie!” Vanya agreed.

“Noooo!” Klaus groaned dramatically, making fake puking sounds, “let’s go do something actually fun. How about we sneak into a club? Allison could rumor us in no problem.” He grinned, pointing at all of his siblings and repeating “yeah? Yeah?” over and over. They all quickly dismissed his request which earned a “well fuck you guys too” from their brother.

“How about you all shut up and we just walk around downtown and see where that takes us?” Five spoke up clearly getting frustrated with the lack of decision making being done.

“Finally a g-g-good suggestion.” Diego mused, snapping his fingers at Five.

“All in agreement then?” Allison asked.

“Yep!”

“Why not.”

“Hells yeah~”

“Sure.”

“D-definitely.”

“Great! To downtown we go.” The van dropped the seven of them off downtown, leaving the kids to their own devices.

“Let’s go eat. I, for one, am absolutely FAMISHED.” Klaus complained, grabbing at his stomach.

“I could eat.” Luther shockingly agreed.

“Same. Let’s head this wa-“ Allison’s words left her as she was quickly knocked to the ground. She hit her head on the sidewalk, blood starting to pour down her forehead.

“WATCH WHERE THE FUCK YOU’RE GOING FUCKING N****ER!” A man came running up to them as he reached a hand down to help some girl up.

“You attacked my daughter, you monster! Where aren’t you’re parents to control you!” Allison didn’t even have time to process what just happened. She was quickly pulled to her feet by her brothers, stumbling backwards as she did so.

“E-excuse me?” Her voice was strained. Everything happened so fast. Who was this man?

“Sir, my sister didn’t attack your daughter. She was running and wasn’t looking where she was going. She ran right into my sister.” Five stepped in front of the siblings, reaching his arm out almost as to herd them behind him.

“No that brown, dangerous fuck targeted my sweet baby girl. Keep this attitude up and I WILL press charges!” He walked closer to the group, pointing right at Allison.

“I didn’t see your daughter. I’m really an sorry sir if she’s hurt. It was an accident.” Allison felt herself starting to shake. She had read about racism. The kids had just finished reading “Warriors Don’t Cry” for school - they knew all about slavery and the racism that African Americans faced. The racism they face. But she couldn’t believe people were still using those words.

“You are REFUSING to cooperate, missy. I’m calling the police on you, so help me god you dirty n*-“ The mans phone was out of his hand and on the floor, a knife pierced through his device. 

”L-lets go!” Diego exclaimed and ran, the rest of the siblings following right behind him.

Allison nodded, smiling sadly at her brother. She never forgot how Diego stood up for her all those years ago. She wanted to at least be able to return the favor.

“In a way, we’re lucky. And in another way, we’re not. We grew up in this extremely privileged environment. We are surrounded by white people, minus Ben,” Allison added, knowing he took pride in his Korean heritage, “and we didn’t have to face nearly as much discrimination as we would have otherwise. But we were also deprived of our culture. I want you to be proud of where you come from, of your skin. It took me years of rejection and hardships to get to where I am today. I am a proud black woman and I want you to be able to feel as secure within yourself as I do.” Allison could see her brothers features tightening with each phrase she signed.

“I-I’m really proud of you, sis.” Diego smiled, reaching out to grab her hand and gave it a light squeeze.

“I’m uh, not th-there yet. Patch helped me a lot with helping me reconnect with my heritage. Now that she’s g-gone,” Diego sighed, running his hand down his face. “It’s been hard.” He admitted.

“I was lucky to have a lot of people in the entertainment history help me get in touch with myself.” Allison mused, “but I know not everyone is as fortunate. Maybe we could do some research together? I know going to a black history museum helped me. We could do something similar together, if you like?”

Diego grinned, nodding enthusiastically, “I’d really like that.” He agreed.

“Thank you, Al.” Diego reached across the table and gave Allison a hug, rubbing her back. She slowly pulled away after a few moments and ruffled his hair.

“Anytime, lil bro.”


End file.
